Brother Printer Does Not Print

[JA_Morrow]

Hello:

Last night I installed Linux Mint 9 onto my PC and everything works except printing. I have an HP Pavilion a1632 desktop computer with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor. This is my fourth Ubuntu (or derivative) install on this machine. My last install was Hardy (8.04) and printing does work there, same printer, same computer, same network, only the OS has changed. I have retained Hardy, and Windows XP, so I can print if I reboot into those partitions.

What I did:

I downloaded the LPR and cupswrapper drivers for my Brother MFC-440CN from the Brother web site, then, even though they are old, I followed BoardDworld's instructions here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-590793.html

Another had posted a supplement to his instructions, which I used:

BEGIN QUOTED TEXT
I have a couple of steps that are required for most brother printers, that are not in your how-to,

Step 3A (these steps need to happen before installing the cupswrapper driver)
go to http://solutions.brother.com/linux/sol/ ... ivers.html and get the brother lpr driver for Debian. The lpr driver proivides the actual printer functionality, the cupswrapper then provides the "glue" to make it work with CUPS.

Step 3B Install the lpr driver BEFORE the cupswrapper driver.
sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture mfc210clpr-1.0.2-1.i386.deb
the force-architecture switch is used to force the 64 bit systems to accept the driver.

Any problems, visit the FAQ at http://solutions.brother.com/linux/sol/ ... faq-2.html

I hope this helps someone.

Again BoardWorld, top job in puting together this how-to!!
END QUOTED TEXT

The situation now - there are two printer objects showing in menu "Administration > Printers". CUPS (http://localhost:631/printers/) also shows the printer installed. The only problem is, when I print a page, a small pop-up box appears in the upper right hand corner of the screen saying "Document Printed", but nothing comes out of the printer.

Thanks in advance!
John

[willie42]

Hello

I was looking at your post and I found this.

http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-622464.html

If you are not working with Video or anything that requires 64 bit I would use 32 bit.

by what I have been told there is not alot of difference in speed between 32 bit and 64 bit

[CaptHilts]

Hey John,

as far as your steps in installing the drivers are concerned, everything seems to be ok! You probably just have to change the devices URI. Open the printer's properties and under Settings Device URI click on change. If the drivers are installed correctly your printer should be there, just select it. If you connect via wi-fi just make sure you've enabled it on the printer and it should recognize it after a few seconds as well.

Cheers
Captn

[JA_Morrow]

CaptHilts:

The printer is permanently set at a static IP address of 198.162.1.2. The IP address was assigned by using the control buttons on the printer itself. Isadora printer properties Settings > "Device URI" shows "socket://192.168.1.2:9100." The IP address is correct but I don't know about the Port. So I will reboot into Hardy and see what is there.

John

[JA_Morrow]

I'm back.

I rebooted into Hardy and checked the Device URI settings. They are the same as what Isadora has. I printed a test page from Hardy and it works fine. FYI, the printer is connected by an Ethernet cable to the router. Other ideas?

John

[CaptHilts]

just one idea atm:

try changing your device's URI to:

lpd://yourPrinter'sIP/binary_p1

if that doesn't work hopefully someone will join us here

Cheers
Captn

[sgosnell]

I've always followed the instructions on the Brother website, and it has always worked. I don't use LM9, but it should work. It's likely some config setting on your computer, but I don't know exactly what you did, and I'm not going to read all those links to try to find out.

[JA_Morrow]

sgosnell:

You were right, I needed to follow the Brother web site instructions (aka RTFM!). I had not installed the ia32-libs. I just installed them, all 140MB of them, and now the printer works just fine!

John